Prodigy: Slaves of Mars

Prodigy #3

by Mark Millar (Writer), Stefano Landini (Illustrator), MSASSYK (Colorist)

Eisner Award-winner Mark Millar's personal favourite creation, Edison Crane is a complex blend of Bruce Wayne, James Bond, Sherlock Holmes and Indiana Jones. He's the world's smartest, coolest man who stifles the boredom of his billionaire life by taking on mysteries no one else can possibly solve.

But the murder of his father is his greatest adventure yet and reunites him with an older, smarter brother who went off-grid years ago and has been living on the streets ever since. How does this all connect to the secret space program and what has the planet Mars been planning for all of us?

Collects Prodigy: Slaves of Mars #1–#5.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction

144 pages, Paperback

Published April 29, 2025

About the author

Mark Millar is the New York Times best-selling writer of Wanted, the Kick-Ass series, The Secret Service, Jupiter’s Legacy, Jupiter’s Circle, Nemesis, Superior, Super Crooks, American Jesus, MPH, Starlight, and Chrononauts. Wanted, Kick-Ass, Kick-Ass 2, and The Secret Service (as Kingsman: The Secret Service) have been adapted into feature films, and Nemesis, Superior, Starlight, War Heroes, Jupiter’s Legacy and Chrononauts are in development at major studios.

His DC Comics work includes the seminal Superman: Red Son, and at Marvel Comics he created The Ultimates – selected by Time magazine as the comic book of the decade, Wolverine: Old Man Logan, and Civil War – the industry’s biggest-selling superhero series in almost two decades.

Mark has been an Executive Producer on all his movie adaptations and is currently creative consultant to Fox Studios on their Marvel slate of movies.

Reviews

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've read that Mark Millar's personal favourite series of his, is Prodigy, and I guess it might be because it's the power-fantasiest of his many power fantasies..?

Edison Crane is superintelligent, and he likes to show it. Actually, he doesn't really show it, he constantly tells you how what he did is really intelligent. And now he has a brother! Who is also superintelligent! And also barely has a personality!

This book just devolves into nonsense, where the brothers spend all their time narrating what is happening and then narrating what they're going to do to stop it happening, then something new happens, and they narrate what's happened, then they tell us what they're going to do to counter it, and so on, page after page after page. It's clunky and boring to read.

I kind of expect the upcoming third volume of Nemesis, featuring Ed Crane's photonegative Nemesis, to be a battle between the two. Two power fantasies without personalities cancelling eachother out.

(Thanks to Dark Horse Books for providing me with an ARC through Edelweiss)

[Toonfactory · Rating 2 out of 5]

(Disclaimer : Read it as single issues)

The book opens strong but starts losing steam midway. By the time it reaches the climax, it veers into a whimsical ending where the hero — who has already taken a backseat by the second half — ends up almost completely dormant.
To be honest with that explosive opening I was expecting a lot more fun with this book.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

These Prodigy books are just as inconsistently entertaining as Millar's other long-ish-running series, The Magic Order. A bland opening with a thrilling follow-up, then a turd for the third (this book).

Edison Crane, world's smartest man, is somehow pantsed by a literal mustache-twirling opponent who shows up on everyone's TV screen. Who can Crane turn to now that he's down and out? His stoner (and even more brilliant) brother, of course! The pair go on the lamb in the dumbest fashion, ultimately with the goal of finding their missing father.

There's a whole "alien civilization from Mars" deal towards the end that simply falls flat. Also flat: the art. Millar usually picks winners in the art department, but not this time. As the third entry in a series focused on dumb fun, Slaves of Mars manages only to be dumb.

[Jayson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review to come...

(B) 73% | More than Satisfactory
Notes: Review pending re-read. Individual reviews for included issues can be found here:
- Prodigy: Slaves of Mars #1
- Prodigy: Slaves of Mars #2
- Prodigy: Slaves of Mars #3
- Prodigy: Slaves of Mars #4
- Prodigy: Slaves of Mars #5

[Joey Nardinelli · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok I might be dragging this score-wise over the lack of clarity around this NOT being the fourth volume in what is a longer standing series. But I also…didn’t really enjoy this all that much. The premise is fine but it is just SO FULL of exposition and there’s a huge lack of action and character growth throughout all five issues. Very few peripheral characters and of those, none of them seem to matter. Maybe having read the earlier volumes would have helped a bit, but this honestly felt like it was dredging up mysteries to wholly new questions and none of this felt like late-game payoffs to a strong narrative arc. What a bummer.

[Kevin Mack · Rating 2 out of 5]

Love Prodigy Series but didn’t love this one….

So I’ve been a fan of characters like Edison Crane for a long time. Tom Strong, Sherlock Holmes, Doc Savage, Mr. Fantastic, etc. But this story felt very forced and like we were along for a ride without anything to go on. To be honest, Edison had no impact on the story itself, neither did his brother. They were both along for the ride, and his father is as unlikable a character as I’ve ever seen. And the “twist ending” felt very unearned. Honestly this could have been great but was very lackluster.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

Millar loves writing (and I dislike reading) these "smartest person in the universe" stories. It just means I never care about any of these characters because they never fail or make the wrong move. But also! They still have to stop plans or take hits in ways that you would think the SPItU would avoid.

"I graduated high school at 4!" Okay, SPItU, but your bank account just got hacked and your don't have ad blockers on your video devices.

Also, apparently I skipped the second volume and didn't even notice!

[Mhorg · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of the zaniest most fun miniseries I've read in a long time. Really over the top science fiction about two genius sons looking for their dad and using SUPER SCIENCE (like something from the pulps of the 40s) to do it. I can't say anymore about it other than this; just go in with your mind open and be ready for some truly outlandish adventures! Really a lot of fun here.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

Edison wasn't as insufferable this time around as in the past books, maybe because his even smarter brother is on-hand? This story had a whole lot of telling/narrating and not a lot of doing. One of the lesser of Millar's ideas for a TV show/movie (which is what most of these MillarWorld comics seem to be--comic book treatments of live action series or movies).

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I still consider Edison Crane and his adventures pulp for a new age.

But, what happens when said adventurer/businessman/do-gooder is stripped of his fortune and toys?

Read and find out. I'm not going to tell you because it gives away too many family secrets.

[Russ Spence · Rating 4 out of 5]

quite liked this book, third book in the Prodigy trilogy (haven't read the second) featuring the main character, prodigy of the title, and an conspiracy to ruin and frame him, which leads him to his long lost brother and the surface of Mars. One of Millar's better storylines, and worth a read

[Anna Quilter · Rating 2 out of 5]

its all a bit too much.....the characters are mostly unlikeable and we spin from revelation to revelation ..not really caring about a storyline

[Drew · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did not love the art. Story is fine, but feels like Millar is starting to rip himself off.

[SaDarius · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty solid!

[RunningRed NightBringer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun little book in the Prodigy series.
Ethan Crane is framed and on the run and has to find his older, smarter brother. They're trying to stay ahead of a mysterious adversary while tracking down a project their father was working on, involving getting to Mars and ancient astronauts.

I saw some of the other reviews for this book, by folks who don't seem to like fun.
Ethan is a bit of a Gary Stu character, but it's an interesting take on the character type. What if Sherlock had empathy and motivation.

Even though Ethan appeared in the Millerverse crossover The Big Game, there's no reference to the other series and the continuity is the same as the prior Prodigy books.

If you like a little super science silly fun, give it a try.